December 6, 2004

In the same week a New York Times/CBS News poll found that a majority of Americans thought entertainment was lowering the country's moral standards, the country's most popular shows were "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (Blood! Guts! Body parts!) and the subversive "Desperate Housewives." (Sex! Lies! Body parts!)

Also, Eminem was outselling Shania Twain.

Yes, it's an entertainment jungle out there, but judging by the wild company we keep, Americans are not exactly babes in the woods.

Associated Press/Dreamworks
Fear of obscenity crackdowns by the Federal Communications Commission caused some ABC affiliates to throw the Oscar-winning "Saving Private Ryan" into the broadcast brig.
Which doesn't mean we are not in danger.

While the nation obsesses over the damage entertainment is inflicting on the United States of Willing Victims, not enough people are talking about the damage entertainment is inflicting on itself.

Media synergy. The dark arts of product placement and embedded advertising. The alarming whims of the FCC. These are things that poison pop culture from the inside, and their stealth attacks corrupt our consciousness in ways that Hollywood naughtiness never will.

When it comes to scary viewing, for instance, skip the towel-draped Nicolette Sheridan and the "Desperate Housewives"/"Monday Night Football" promo and go directly to the Columbia Journalism Review's "Who Owns What" Web link (cjr.org/tools/). There, you can peruse the vast holdings of the giants who shape your entertainment world and use the media they own to promote the products they make.

Over the last year, Disney-owned ABC has done news-magazine features on Disney-produced films ("The Village" on "Primetime Live"; "King Arthur" on "20/20"; "The Incredibles" on "Good Morning America").

Meanwhile, NBC's "Today" show – which is now part of the NBC-Universal conglomerate – has done stories on Universal Pictures' "Friday Night Lights" and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," along with pieces on Universal Records recording artist Elton John and supermodel Heidi Klum, whose "Project Runway" airs on Bravo, an NBC-Universal cable station.

When the News Corporation's TV Guide touts Fox Television's "Arrested Development," and Time-Warner's Time and Entertainment Weekly cheer for Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter" films, is it because the subjects are buzz-worthy, or because the magazines are owned by the same companies as much of the entertainment they cover?

And how did that randy Janet Jackson end up performing at this year's Super Bowl anyway? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Viacom-owned CBS decided to let its envelope-pushing counterparts at Viacom-owned MTV produce the halftime show.

While entertainment giants are co-opting your brain and leisure time, advertisers are using entertainment to pick your pocket. In an effort to combat the power of the mute button and digital-video recorders, advertisers are paying TV networks to place their products in your TV shows, where you can't possibly miss them.

If you want to see who gets fired on "The Apprentice," you'll have to watch the contestants dream up ways to sell Levi's jeans, Crest toothpaste and Pepsi. Fans of "American Dream" have been treated to co-starring turns by cans of Campbell's Soup and a Ford Mustang. The Chrysler 300 C has made several pivotal appearances on "ER"; the WB's "What I Like About You" devoted an entire episode to a Clairol Herbal Essences contest; and Coke, Ford and AT&T Wireless get more "American Idol" face time than the Simon, Randy and Paula.

It's no better on the big screen, where "The Forgotten" gives big plugs to Volvo, Armani and Apple computers; "Shark Tale" shills for the Sony PlayStation; and "National Treasure" plot twists come courtesy of Aquafina water and the hero's Visa card.

Product placement has become such big business, the folks at Nielsen Media Research plan to launch a system that will help the networks track the success of their in-show plugs, so they will know how much to charge for them.

You would think this parasitic alliance between advertising and programming would have the Federal Communications Commission on high alert, but that makes far too much sense to be true.

Instead of protecting viewers from merged-media monsters, predatory advertisers and greedy networks, the FCC is cracking down on bad words and suggestive flashes of skin.

Spooked by the national uproar over Ms. Jackson's infamous Super Bowl reveal, the FCC ruled in March that an expletive blurted out by U2's excitable Bono at the 2003 Golden Globe Awards was obscene. That decision reversed a pre-Janet ruling that the singer's use of the F-word as an adjective was not obscene. In the months since, the FCC has toughened its enforcement of indecency regulations while becoming vulnerable to the demands of a few determined individuals.

In October, the FCC proposed fines of more than $1 million against Fox TV for an episode of the now-canceled "Married by America" featuring raunchy bachelor and bachelorette parties. The FCC said it was responding to citizen complaints about the show, but when TV critic Jeff Jarvis filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the complaints, he discovered that of the 159 letters cited by the FCC, only three were original. The rest were copies of the same form letter.

The FCC could have done similar research, but instead, it just lowered the boom. Combined with the Janet Jackson furor and the Bono reversal, the "Married by America" decision sent a chill up the spines of some broadcasters. So when it came time to air the profanity-spiked "Saving Private Ryan" on Veterans Day, more than 60 ABC affiliates balked.

The Oscar-winning film had made two previous TV appearances, its violence and F-words intact as per director Steven Spielberg's agreement with the network. But with the threat of fines and form-letter firestorms hanging over their heads, some station owners declined to take the risk.

"Under strict interpretation of the indecency rules, we do not see any way possible to air this movie," Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications said in a news release. "To be put in this position is unfortunate, and reflects the timidity that exists at the commission right now."

This is our new pop-culture jungle, where four-letter words are worse than marauding big business and flashes of flesh are a bigger threat than naked greed. It's enough to send endangered consumers fleeing for the safe shelter of Nicolette Sheridan's towel.